Highland head coach Davie Carson feels his side will make the National 1 trip to Boroughmuir with a spring in their step this weekend.
The Inverness outfit kick-started their campaign by coming from behind to defeat Heriot’s Blues 28-27 in a thrilling encounter at Canal Park last weekend.
Highland’s victory followed back-to-back defeats to Ayr and Kelso in the opening two weeks of the campaign, with Carson confident his side have regained their swagger of previous seasons.
He said: “We were behind for the whole game, but we never gave up and we produced a great victory in the end.
“Full credit to the players. I wasn’t very complimentary after the Kelso game, but they took it all on board and responded just the way we knew they would.
“They brought back the spirit we have had over the years and kept playing to the final whistle, and we got our rewards.
“It would have been a difficult trip to Boroughmuir on the back of three losses, the pressure would have been mounting even more.
“We have come over that now. We always said they were a good side, but they just needed to believe in themselves.
“Heriot’s were a top side and they were bitterly disappointed as they thought they were going to win it quite comfortably after our two results.
“Boroughmuir will be tough too, but we can go down there with a bit of confidence and hopefully get a victory down there.”
Carson says patience holds the key to his side racking up a second straight victory against a Boroughmuir side which has won two of its opening three matches.
He added: “Similar to what happened on Saturday, we just need to play for 80 minutes and wear sides down.
“We’ve got to just work hard and keep the ball as we did against Heriot’s, which we hadn’t done in previous weeks.
“Eventually a tackle will get missed or there will be something we can get through. We just need to be really patient. We have worked on keeping the ball for long periods, and we’ve got the guys that can finish these moves off.”
Carson felt the return of some experienced players helped his side’s cause, however, he reserved special praise for teenage prop Patrick Ratumaisese, who made his first senior start.
Carson will be without Mike Gordon (torn quad) and Ruaridh MacDonald (broken wrist), but has Gordon Gregor back from a knee injury, and he added: “Patrick was absolutely fantastic for an 18-year-old prop making his first start in National 1. He was well looked after in the front row by some of our experienced players who came back into the side and helped to steady the ship.”
